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MAXIMS. 



MAXIMS, 



REFLECTIONS 



&c. 



BY 



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R/DUPPA, LL.B. 



LONDON : 

PRINTED BY C. WHITTINGHAM, TOOKS COURT, 
CHANCERY LANE; AND 

PUBLISHED BY LONGMAN AND CO. 
PATERNOSTER ROW. 



M.DCCC.XXX. 




^ 



«*y 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



In this advertisement the Editor has 
only one remark to make which can 
be of any importance to the public 
or to himself ; it is that not one sin- 
gle Maxim is meant to apply to any 
living person whatever, but all are 
intended to refer to existing princi- 
ples founded on the constitution of 
the human mind, and are, for the 
most part, the result of his own ob- 
servations and reflections. Those 
adopted from other authors are not 
always particularised, to avoid the 
appearance of giving importance to 



6 ADVERTISEMENT. 

trifles, intended only to amuse an 
idle hour, from which the Editor 
seeks neither renown nor reward. 
From Lord Chesterfield's Maxims 
he has only adopted one, as they are 
a display of Court wisdom, always 
founded in cunning ; in its modern 
sense, a detestable quality. 

The concluding sentences from 
the Greek were translated and pub- 
lished many years ago, at the request 
of Lady Amherst, for the instruction 
of her noble relation, Lord Viscount 
Falkland, when a child, which having 
been long out of print are added, as 
they partake of the same character 
with the rest of the work. 




MAXIMS, 

ETC. ETC. 



He who wishes to be popular must look 
favourably on the vices and follies of man- 
kind. This is said to be a marked charac- 
teristic of Talleyrand, and gave him an 
influence in the progress of the French 
Revolution. 

ii. 
He who contends with knaves, by whom 
he has been injured, spends his time to 
the gratification of his enemies, without 
rendering any service to himself. 

in. 

Complainers never contribute to that 
comfort they expect from others. 



8 MAXIMS. 

IV. 
Children and soldiers are the only per- 
sons who can be depended on to give di- 
rect evidence in a court of justice. Garrick, 
on a trial in Westminster Hall, was so 
confused that he was dismissed, as one 
from whom no information could be ob- 
tained* ; and when he appeared at the Old 
Bailey to speak in behalf of Barettrf, he 
could give no answer, but what was refer- 
able to himself. 

* This was a trial, by indictment, in Westminster 
Hall, before Mr. Justice Aston, February 24, 1775, 
against five persons, for a conspiracy to hiss Macklin 
off the stage of Covent Garden Theatre. When Gar- 
rick, among other questions, was asked what was a 
free benefit, the only answer he could give, was that 
a free benefit was — a free benefit. 

Four of the defendants were found guilty of the 
conspiracy, and when they were brought up for judg- 
ment, Macklin compromised the penalty ; upon which 
Lord Mansfield said, " Mr. Macklin, I always knew 
you to be a great actor, but you never acted better 
in your life than you have on this day." 

f Baretti killed a man of the name of Evan Mor- 
gan, by stabbing him with a knife, in a rencounter 
in the Haymarket, October 6, 1769; for which he 
was tried at the Old Bailey, and acquitted. 



MAXIMS. 9 

v. 
Nothing is more common than for men 
to censure others, without being aware that 
the faults they complain of are applicable 
to themselves. 

VI. 

Reason alone is a very unsafe test to try 
any man's conduct by ; his passions, his 
fancies, his impulses, and his caprice, are 
often active while his reason is asleep. 

VII. 

Reason is generally subservient to pre- 
judice and to early habits; and he is con- 
sidered as a common enemy who attempts 
to estrange us from riveted associations. 

VIII. 

Of accurate truth there is less in the 
world than is generally supposed. My 
learned friend, Dr. Marshal, from whom I 
derived much early instruction, said that 
diamonds and gold were scarce, but not 
half so scarce as correct and accurate truth. 

a2 



10 MAXIMS. 

Independent of culpable misrepresentation, 
prejudice and partiality, originating in a 
thousand distortions of the mind, are com- 
mon impediments. Wilkes, as every one 
knew, squinted frightfully, and was besides 
a very ugly man ; nevertheless, a lady, 
who was strongly attached to his politics, 
said, he squinted no more than a gentleman 
ought to squint. And Opie, the professor 
of painting, told me that Buonaparte had a 
fine carnation hue in his face, whose com- 
plexion was of a sallow olive colour, some- 
what like dried parchment. 

IX. 

The wisest and the most enlightened are 
rarely proof against the habits established 
by custom and education. Lord Bacon is 
lavish of commendation on the jurisdiction 
of the Star Chamber, and calls it one of 
the sagest and noblest institutions of this 
kingdom. When the law for burning here- 
tics was repealed, and the liberty of the 
press established two years afterwards, the 



MAXIMS. U 

people of England thought that the whole 
nation was going to destruction. 

x. 
The main support and stay of civil so- 
ciety is Order ; to obtain which, endless 
artificial contrivances are instituted, gener- 
ally lost sight of by the zealous advocates 
of natural liberty. 

XI. 

It is an employment worse than useless 
to attempt to set others right against their 
habits and prejudices. 

XII. 

No man's character is uniform. 

Julius Caesar, Cicero, and Pretrarch 
were all exceedingly vain of their persons. 
Cicero says of Caesar, " I perceive in all 
he projects and executes, an inclination for 
tyranny ; but on the other hand, when I 
see him adjusting his hair with so much 
exactness, and scratching his head with one 
finger, I can hardly think that such a man 
can conceive so vast and fatal a design as the 
destruction of the Roman commonwealth." 



12 MAXIMS. 

XIII. 

Prosperity washes out the disesteem 
which belongs, and ought always to belong, 
to quackery, presumptuous ignorance, and 
imposture. 

XIV. 

The greatest art of a quack is to time his 
imposture. 

xv. 
Friendships seldom strengthen as life 
declines ; youth is the season for all ardent 
passions. Dr. Johnson says, we must keep 
our friendships in repair ; but this advice 
he found difficult to practise ; and he esta- 
blished a twopenny club, after Mr. Thrale's 
death, to keep self-tormenting solitude at a 
distance # . 

* Mr. Thrale was Dr. Johnson's particular friend, 
after whose death Dr. Johnson retired to Bolt Court 
to count the clock, as he says, with two sick and 
discontented women ; and though Mr. Thrale left a 
property of more than three hundred thousand pounds, 
he neglected to bequeath him a small annuity for 
the remainder of a life already run out to more than 
seventy years. 



MAXIMS. 13 

XVI. 

Those who are a little below us in wealth 
or station are always more watchful of their 
own consequence than those who never 
suspect a want of equality. 

XVII. 

Generosity is a quality generally liked ; 
but there always lurks a secret displeasure 
in those who see it as a contrast to their 
own meanness. 

XVIII. 

No injury penetrates more deeply than 
the discovery of a subtile contrivance to 
make you the dupe of another's artifice. 

XIX. 

To insure the probable continuance of 
friendship there must be a parity of station 
and fortune, and some kindred pursuit. 

xx. 
He who expects friendship to last after 
the mutual pleasure that produced it has 
passed away, has no reason to complain 
when he finds himself disappointed. 



14 MAXIMS. 

XXI. 
No man likes to be instructed at the ex- 
pense of being lessened in his own opinion. 

XXII. 

By the French Revolution, a love of li- 
berty has been taught to future generations 
to be a hatred of all authority, except that 
despotism which the asserters of liberty set 
up. 

XXIII. 

By the world crimes on a great scale, 
are admired or treated with indulgence. 
The revocation of the Edict of Nantz was 
applauded in France ; and Richard III. 
had warm partisans after the murder of 
his nephews. 

xxiv. 
New inventions and discoveries, through 
envy or prejudice, are generally censured 
by those who ought to know their value. 
On Harvey's first discovery of the circula- 
tion of the blood, no physician who was 
then more than forty years of age assented 



MAXIMS. 15 

to the discovery ; and in addition, he is said 
to have been disgraced in the public esteem 
as a visionary theorist, and to have lost his 
medical practice. 

Mr. Pepys, a scientific man, in the reign 
of Charles II. suggested the great impor- 
tance of sheathing ships with copper, and 
urged the advantages with sound and per- 
suasive arguments ; and says, in some des- 
pair, " I wish it were tried on one ship." 
But this experiment was delayed for nearly 
a century ; and when it was tried, although 
it answered beyond expectation, yet the 
prejudice against innovation was so strong, 
that in Admiral Keppel's fleet, 1778, there 
was only one coppered ship. 

xxv. 

Good taste is founded in good sense. 

When a miniature coffin is handed about 

as a snuffbox, and a human skull as a 

drinking cup # , there can be no doubt that 

* In the sockets of both eyes of this scull were 
gold plates, with a huntsman leaping over a five- 
barred gate engraved on one, and a whipper-in with 
his hounds on the other. 



16 MAXIMS. 

good taste is no longer respected or es- 
teemed. 

XXVI. 

Minds saturated with acidity attribute 
every action to a selfish motive in a bad 
sense ; but this is seeing the sun through 
a medium of darkness. Francesco Nori 
stepped in between Lorenzo di Medici and 
the assassin, and received the blow that 
sent him to the grave ; Bulzan saved the 
life of the last king of Poland by a sacrifice 
of the same kind ; and acts of charity are 
numerous by unknown persons. # 

* Not long since, one John Came, a shoemaker, 
for many years during his life, sent two hundred 
pounds annually to the Cordwainers' Company, to 
be distributed among deaf-and-dumb and blind per- 
sons, which he usually sent in half notes of the Bank 
of England, with instructions to acknowledge their 
receipt in a given newspaper : he then sent the cor- 
responding halves, and the benefactor was unknown. 
This benevolent man died May 13, 1796, and be- 
queathed upwards of thirty-seven thousand pounds 
stock in the three per cents, in trust to the Cord- 
wainers' Company for ever, to distribute the interest 
of that sum in similar acts of charity. 



MAXIMS. 17 

XXVII. 

Affection levels ail inequalities. 

XXVIII. 

A man does not always dislike to be 
talked to on a subject he does not entirely 
comprehend, inasmuch as we have no dis- 
like to be thought wiser than we are. 

XXIX. 

Forms of respect are established to guard 
prerogatives. And another use of forms is 
to keep silly people from endless deviations. 

xxx. 
Agreeable manners, more than talents, 
genius, or private worth, make a man sought 
for in society. Mrs. Montague dropped the 
acquaintance of Dr. Johnson, though, as 
Hogarth said of him, his talk to that of 
other men, was like Titian's painting com- 
pared to Hudson's. 

XXXI. 

Griefs that must be privately buried in 
the breast are the most bitter. 



18 MAXIMS. 

XXXII. 

In England, penal laws to be operative 
must have the common consent of the peo- 
ple. Gibbon has observed, " whenever an 
offence inspires less horror than the punish- 
ment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to 
give way to the common feelings of man- 
kind." 

For upwards of twenty years any one 
might have been searched on entering a 
stage-coach, to ascertain whether he was 
the bearer of a letter which ought to be 
sent by the post, yet the government never 
ventured to enforce this legislative enact- 
ment, though hundreds of letters were sent 
daily by private hands. Sir John Barnard, 
in the year 1734, caused a very salutary law 
to be made to prevent gambling on the Stock 
Exchange ; yet there has never been one 
instance of its being put in force from that 
time to the present, though millions have 
been won and lost since that law was made 
to prevent those gambling transactions, and 
are now of every day's occurrence. 



MAXIMS. 19 

« XXXIII. 

One who can do us no harm is rarely- 
valued for his good nature. 

xxxiv. 
The best receipt to be agreeable, is to be 
natural and well bred. 

xxxv. 
" Truth is the first want of princes and 

Of people." Charles X. King of France. 

XXXVI. 

Of conversation there is less in society 
than is generally supposed ; story-telling 
and asking questions make up the principal 
colloquial intercourse of mankind. 

XXXVII. 

Those who furnish amusement by exhi- 
biting the ridiculous parts of other men's 
characters, are neither esteemed nor res- 
pected by the very persons whom they 
amuse. 

XXXVIII. 

Herodotus says, nothing in human life 



20 MAXIMS. 

is more to be lamented than that a wise 
man should have so little influence. 

xxxix. 
He who has no great store of wit, if he 
has a desire to please and to be pleased, has 
one of the most agreeable qualities of so- 
cial life. 

XL. 

Dexterous malignity blackens by insinu- 
ation : Shakspeare has given a good exam- 
ple in his character of Iago. 

XLI. 

In eagerness to seize an apparent advan- 
tage, reason is often made subservient to 
unreasonable expectations. 

Some years ago an auctioneer, to make 
himself notorious, put up to sale what he 
called a Queen Anne's farthing, and nomi- 
nally sold it for upwards of five hundred 
pounds, which gave him an opportunity to 
make an attractive advertisement. This 
intelligence reached the remotest parts of 
the kingdom ; and a poor tenant on the 



MAXIMS. 21 

property of the Marchioness of Stafford, in 
Sutherland, found, as he supposed, one of 
these treasures ; and as he thought it much 
too valuable to trust to any ordinary mode 
of conveyance, he brought it up to London 
himself, travelling the greatest part of the 
way on foot ; but when he arrived, he was 
mortifyingly disappointed to find it a Nu- 
remberg counter, with Queen Anne's head 
upon it, not worth the farthing it repre- 
sented. 

Mr. Comb, the late keeper of the medals 
and coins in the British Museum, said that 
from the time this puff of the great value of 
the Queen Anne's farthing appeared in the 
newspapers, he had paid more than twenty 
pounds for the postage of letters addressed 
to him on that subject. 

XLII. 

Ingratitude is a vice which implies all 
other vices. — dcero. 

XLIII. 

He who is first wrong is most wrong. 



22 MAXIMS. 

XLIV. 

Dignity without obliging manners is of- 
fensive ; though with them, it is popular. 

XLV. 

There is a vis inertice in the mind as well 
as in matter. At Paterno, a walled town 
on the western coast of Italy, the air is so 
bad that the whole population consists of 
less than a dozen inhabitants, and half as 
many ghastly looking soldiers. Here the 
soldiers were asked how they disposed of 
their time, to which they answered, " Eat, 
and drink, and lie sick." Why a soldier 
should be found to live here when a fishing 
boat could take him elsewhere, where he 
might enlist for bread and be safe, is against 
the common law of self-preservation. 

XL VI. 

Of questions which have many bearings 
the public never consider more than one ; 
and are generally more right in cases of 
moral justice than of political expediency. 



MAXIMS. 23 

XLVII. 

There are many things not so difficult to 
do as to abandon your mind to do them. 

XL VIII. 

Those who have much knowledge are 
careless whether others know that fact or 
not ; but those who know little are always 
anxious to be supposed to know much. 

XLIX. 

When expectation is disappointed, how- 
ever unreasonable, former services are for- 
gotten. 

L. 

Wearing qualities are founded in good 
sense and good feelings ; wearing-out qua- 
lities are founded merely in sensation and 
prosperity. 

LI. 

The dreams of sleeping men are all made 
up of the waking man's ideas, though for 
the most part oddly put together. — Locke. 

LII. 

Deep-rooted ignorance has a principle of 



24 MAXIMS. 

vitality beyond rational expectation. When 
Copernicus demonstrated that the sun was 
in the centre of our planetary system he 
was branded with egregious folly, madness, 
and impious heresy, by the combined block- 
heads of all Europe. 

Vulgar errors, of long standing, obtain 
belief, without having any foundation in 
truth. The sale of a wife in a public mar- 
ket-place, and the arresting a dead body on 
its way to interment, are of this descrip- 
tion ; neither of which have any foundation 
in law or common sense*. 

* On Monday, December 16, 1816, at the Butter- 
cross in Doncaster, a journeyman nailer sold his wife, 
with a halter about her neck, to a sign-painter for 
five shillings and sixpence. 

At Buckland in Somersetshire, a labouring man 
sold his wife to a shoemaker for five pounds, and 
delivered her in a halter in the public street. (Dor- 
set Chronicle, Dec. 1827.) Similar acts, often re- 
peated, have established a belief on the Continent that 
this disgraceful practice is agreeable to the law of the 
land. The last instance of arresting a dead body 
was that of Sir Barnard Turner, an Alderman of 
London, in the year 1784. 



MAXIMS. 26 

LIII. 

While philosophers were seeking to find 
a character for man to distinguish him 
from other animals, inconsistency ought 
not to have been forgotten*. 

Men will often walk further to save a 
penny than to gain a shilling, to this prin- 
ciple, as one cause, may be attributed the 
failure of the revenue of the Strand Bridge. 

LIV. 

In civilized life to be happy the mind 
must be kept in motion. 

lv, 
Vanity is pleased with admiration ; Pride 
with self-esteem, and receives attentions as 
a tribute, not as a gift, and belongs to no 
class in society ; it originates in self-impor- 
tance, and often in bad feelings towards man- 

* The late Bishop of Durham, at the circuit dinners 
he gave to the Judges and the Bar never permitted 
the French wines to go further down the table than 
the silk gowns ; by which he saved a few shillings 
and tarnished his respectability. 



26 MAXIMS. 

kind. Cicero, Petrarch, and Lord Erskine 
were all vain and amiable, but not proud. 

LVI. 

All like to be pleased, few to be in- 
structed ; hence a severe moralist is rarely 
agreeable, while a man of detestable quali- 
ties may be well received. It is difficult 
to imagine a character more unworthy or 
more contemptible than Falstaff. " He 
was," as Dr. Johnson says, " a thief and a 
glutton, a coward and a boaster, obsequious 
and malevolent ; ready at all times to prey 
upon the poor and insult the defenceless ; 
yet his company, thus despicable is made 
desirable, because he had an amusing wit 
and perpetual gaiety ;" and as Clarendon 
says of Waller, " his wit and pleasant con- 
versation made his company acceptable 
where his spirit was odious." 

LVII. 

" To live by one man's will becomes the 
cause of all men's misery." This is said 
by the great Hooker : and I suspect similar 



MAXIMS. 27 

sentiments in his writings were the cause 
of his being overlooked by Queen Eliza- 
beth, as Paley's chapter of Pigeons is said 
to have cost him a bishoprick. 

LVIII. 

It is as useless as it is impolitic to com- 
plain of the world ■; for the world will be 
sure to be an overmatch for those who find 
fault with it. 

LIX. 

Characters of manners originate in so- 
ciety ; but the enchanting character of na- 
ture originates in the heart. 

LX. 

Omiah # defined an English gentleman 
to be a person who did no work, had clean 
hands, and was never in a passion. To 
which definition might be added ; to do as 

* Omiah was a native of Otaheite, and brought 
to England by Captain Furneaux, July 14, 1774. 
Captain Furneaux commanded the sloop Adventure, 
which sailed on a voyage of discovery from Plymouth 
July 31, 1772, in company with Captain Cook, in 
his second voyage round the world. 



28 MAXIMS. 

you are bid*, to be kind to those whom it 
is your place to command, and never to 
take offence where no offence is meant. 

LXI. 

When friendship declines, it is lost. 

LXII. 

The art which makes others subservient 
to our views, while they think they are 
promoting their own, is a talent without 
moral virtue. Lord Burleigh advises Queen 
Elizabeth to suffer a certain class of her 
subjects " to be strong in hope, that with 
reason they may be content ;" and this he 
calls enameling. 

LXIII. 

A cunning man is a common disgrace. 

* When there was some hesitation between Mr. 
Burke and another gentleman, which should go out 
of a room first, he said, " I always do as I am bid ; 
it is least trouble, and best bred." 

The well known anecdote given to Lord Stair and 
Louis XIV. is a good instance of the recognition of 
this principle. 



MAXIMS. 29 

LXIV. 

Civilities should never be declined wnen 
they are sincerely meant as proofs of res- 
pect. 

LXV. 

You may talk to, but you cannot converse 
with people who are destitute of previous 
knowledge. 

LXVI. 

Friendship is less in commercial coun- 
tries than in those not commercial. Mon- 
tesquieu says, " The English esteem but 
two things, wealth and merit." 

LXVII. 

Wrong begets wrong. 

LXVIII. 

Civility has its limits ; to press any one 
to do what he is not inclined, is to pass 
those limits, and to be ill-bred. 

LXIX. 

We are most pleased with the happiness 
of others when it arises out of habits simi- 
lar to our own. 



30 MAXIMS: 

LXX. 

We often deceive ourselves by supposing 
that we are governed by reason, when we 
are governed by habit and sensation. 

LXXI. 

Accurate truth stands in the way of 
sharp wits. 

LXXII. 

It is easy to utter a sharp and cutting 
sentence if no regard be paid to truth or 
to the decorum of society. 

- LXXIII. 

It is difficult to be at once great and 
agreeable. Washington was very rarely 
seen to smile ; and one of the most re- 
nowned characters of antiquity never ap- 
peared elated in prosperity, nor dejected in 
adversity. 

LXXIV. 

The sheet anchor of happiness is religion. 



MAXIMS. 31 

LXXV. 

Learning ought to be the weapon and 
instrument only of manly, honourable, and 

virtUOUS action. Lord Chatham. 

LXXVI. 

The pleasure of believing what is im- 
possible gives birth to impostors. Hence 
it has been believed that a woman, with 
the organs of vision at the ends of her 
fingers, was able to read the smallest 
print # ; that a servant maid was an oriental 
princess t, and that an old woman lived 
without food J. 

* Her name was Macavoy, and she practised her 
art at Liverpool. 

| This woman called herself Caraboo, Princess of 
Javasu, and became a person of great notoriety in 
the neighbourhood of Bristol in the year 1817. 

X By which wonder she collected, in the course 
of two years, about two hundred and fifty pounds. 
She lived at Tutbury, in Staffordshire, and adopted 
this fraud on public credulity in the year 1807. To 
these might be added the Fortunate Youth, and 
many others. 



32 MAXIMS. 

LXXVII. 
Without a foundation of solid virtue the 
noblest accomplishments lose their value. 

LXXVIII. 

He who cuts down a mans wonder cre- 
ates an enemy. To deny the story of Wil- 
liam Tell, in Switzerland, is to create a 
general hostility throughout the twenty-two 
Cantons. And in Sicily, to disbelieve that 
the group of fine chesnut trees, called the 
Castagno di cento Covalli, was once one 
solid stem, is an offence against common 
credulity. 

LXXIX. 

Credulity is governed more by the appe- 
tite for what is new and surprising, than 
by the laws of probability. 

The confident belief in England that the 
Chevalier d'Eon was a woman, and not a 
man, must be attributed to this feeling. 
He had been educated as a boy from his 
infancy ; when he grew up, he took the 
degree of doctor of civil law, was afterwards 
an officer of dragoons, knight of the order 



MAXIMS. 33 

of St. Louis, and secretary to the Due de 
Nivernois at the peace of Fontainbleau, 
1762, and was some time in England in the 
character of charge d'affaires. Afterwards, 
for reasons never explained, he was dressed 
in woman's clothes, called himself Made- 
moiselle^ and tells a tissue of falsehoods, 
and the English then believe him to be a 
lady, against all probable evidence, against 
their reason, and against common sense; 
and in this character he continued to his 
death. He died in extreme poverty, May 
21, 1810, supposed to be about eighty- 
three years of age, in an obscure lodging 
in the neighbourhood of the Foundling 
Hospital, and for many years was supported 
by the kindness of those ladies who knew 
him in his days of prosperity. I knew a 
little of him, and saw him on the fourth 
day after his decease, May 25. 

LXXX. 

Words, with the public, have more in- 
fluence than things. The government of 

b 2 



34 MAXIMS. 

England thought it of importance to engage 
Dibdin, with a pension of two hundred a 
year, after a mutiny at the Nore, to write 
popular seafaring songs. From the same 
principle Mr. Pitt imprisoned a silly man 
for playing a jacobin air on a barrel-organ 
in the street ; and the power of the Dukes 
of Norfolk and Northumberland in the heat 
of the French Revolution was annihilated, 
from their being called Jacobins, than 
whom, two men never existed who deserved 
that title less. 

LXXXI. 

Among the ancients, as well as among 
the moderns, words had the same influence 
on the multitude. Socrates was first called 
an atheist, and then poisoned ; Caesar and 
Cromwell were afraid of the title of king, 
though both ruled with despotic power 
without that title. And men in all ages 
have become insane with the word Li- 
berty, when not a shadow of its meaning 
existed. 



MAXIMS. 35 

LXXXII. 

To comply with the vices of others, and 
promote their good opinion of themselves, 
is to buy esteem at a greater price than it 
is worth. 

LXXXIII. 

The only palliative for vulgarity is uni- 
form good nature; when that is wanting, 
vulgarity is something like brutality. 

LXXXIV. 

Men hate others by whom they know 
they ought themselves to be hated. 

LXXXV. 

Good qualities are often assumed to hide 
bad ones. 

LXXXVI. 

The many are more easily won by appeal- 
ing to their sensations than to their reason. 

LXXXVII. 

When a bad man, high in authority and 
power, is less mischievous than he has 
been, he is accounted good. When he 



36 MAXIMS. 

has been atrociously unjust and becomes 
eminently successful, men have a happy 
way of reasoning about the compound cha- 
racter of man, and of comparing his vices 
to spots in the sun. Frederick the Great, 
and Napoleon le Grand, were characters 
of this description. 

LXXXVIII. 

Principle is the salt of society. 

LXXXIX. 

To preserve ourselves from tyranny we 
must be virtuous and united ; but if we 
are too selfish or too corrupt for this union, 
it is better to yield up our liberty to one 
man than to submit to the domination of 
many. 

xc. 

Where there is love, all things interest ; 
where there is indifference, minute details 
are tedious ; and where there is hatred, dis- 
belief is cherished, and trifles are thought 
contemptible. 



MAXIMS. 37 

XCI. 
Aversions are easily made implacable 
when the parties hated each other before. 

xcn. 
Familiarity with any monstrosity makes 
it appear natural ; thus fashions, however 
odious, are first adopted and then cherished. 

xcm. 
All pleasures that sink deep into the 
heart are tinged with melancholy. 

xciv. 
Sweeping censure gives to ignorance and 
prejudice the appearance of an enlarged 
understanding. 

xcv. 
No man is respected by others, who shews 
that he cannot respect himself. 

xcvi. 
Among imaginary derogations are ob- 
scurity of birth and want of wealth. Gray 
was ashamed that his father had kept a 
shop ; and Congreve valued himself more 



38 MAXIMS. 

on being a private gentleman than on his 
literary reputation. 

Obscure people, who are ambitious of 
making a large fortune, are only preparing 
for the moment when they will be in despair 
for their want of birth. 

xcvu. 
Selfishness is the bane of all social virtue. 

xcvm. 
True politeness is founded in the absence 
of selfish feelings. 

xcix. 
Confidence stamps the value of friend- 
ship. 

c. 

Those whose chief employment is to 
mend mankind always forget what share 
of it is wanting for themselves. 

ci. 

We like that others should resemble our- 
selves, but then we like that they should 
be subordinate to our will. 



MAXIMS. 39 

CII. 

The odium of dishonesty is lessened in 
proportion to the number among whom it 
is shared ; or as it is expressed by a popular 
author, " crime is diluted by the number 
of people concerned." 

cm. 
He who is first wrong is most wrong. 

civ. 
A complainer gratifies his enemies with- 
out attaching friends. 

cv. 
Speculative theories of imaginary good 
may foster discontent, but what we actually 
feel makes the most lasting impression. 

cvi. 
General character cannot be long hid 
from the world, though a particular vice 
may. The first Lord Foley, who possessed 
a large fortune and extensive patronage in 
the church, being asked why he neglected 



40 MAXIMS. 

to provide for a poor relation, who was a 
very unworthy clergyman, said, " because 
he has every vice but one, and for the want 
of that one, he puts it out of my power to 
serve him, and that is hypocrisy." 

cvn. 
Long civil war induces a people to sur- 
render liberty for peace ; and long peace to 
encounter civil war for liberty. 

CVIII. 

No good contract can be ever made where 
only one party is benefited ; those who are 
cunning think otherwise : wise men know 
that unless there be a reciprocity in en- 
gagements, they will terminate when the 
necessity or compulsion that made them is 

removed. 

cix. 

No person will sit with patience to hear 
any one praised for more than five minutes, 
but a commentator on others' defects will 
have willing listeners, and the minutes will 
not be counted. 



MAXIMS. 41 

CX. 
Wrong-headed persons make a liberal 
use of contradiction, that they may be up- 
permost. 

CXI. 

A favour conferred that falls short of 
expectation cancels its whole worth. 

CXII. 

Nothing gives permanent pleasure equal 
to extensive knowledge. — Cicero. 

CXIII. 

He who reposes no confidence in others 

ought not to be dissappointed if none be 

reposed in him. 

cxiv. 

A present is worthless but as a sign of 

kindness and esteem ; cost makes no part 

of its value. 

cxv. 

Ignorance and obstinacy are always 

companions. 

cxvi. 

Vice is always ready to fill up the gap 

left by misgovernment. 



42 MAXIMS. 

CXVIT. 

Some men suppose they gain by frank- 
ness what they lose by a careless indiffe- 
rence to principle. A certain Fellow of 
a College in Cambridge, of epigrammatic 
celebrity, who had but small preferment, 
said one day in the Combination Room 
that he would turn his mind to politics ; 
on being asked, on what side, " What side ! 
the buttered side, to be sure." And by 
the buttered side he became a bishop. 

CXVIII. 

He who praises another, and falls short 
of what is expected, had better have said 
nothing. 

cxix. 

Lord John Russell says, " No govern- 
ment can withstand a combination of the 
stupid and the foolish." 

cxx. 

No man is ashamed to say he is poor, 
if he knows that he will not be believed. 



MAXIMS. 43 

CXXI. 
Truth adulterated with romance poisons 
history. 

cxxn. 

Vulgarity and ignorance united in the 
same person tinges society with the darkest 
shade of discomfort. 

CXXIII. 

No man can be driven from his preju- 
dices any more than he can be pleased 
against his will. 

cxxiv. 

We receive consolation when we are re- 
minded of greater misfortunes than our own, 
whereas our sorrow ought rather to be 
increased than diminished. Sulpicius con- 
soles Cicero for the loss of his daughter, 
by telling him, " iEgina, Megara, and Co- 
rinth, once great and populous cities, have 
now passed away, and nothing is left but 
their ruins." 

cxxv. 

General rules are often alleged to hide a 
dislike to grant what is expected from us. 



44 MAXIMS. 

CXXVI. 
Those who are full of prejudices and 
fancies never allow the same indulgence to 
others which they expect for themselves. 

CXXVII. 

More characters are destroyed by whis- 
pering malignity than by open accusation. 

CXXVIII. 

When prudence amounts to privation, 
necessity does not make it the more agree- 
able. 

CXXIX. 

From insulated facts general conclusions 
are seldom correct, for prejudices and pas- 
sions are enemies to uniformity of thought 
and stability of purpose. 

cxxx. 

Uniformity of character is a rare quality; 

and constantly disappoints the expectation 

of those who fancy that reason alone governs 

mankind. 

cxxxi. 

A man who is called the cleverest man 



MAXIMS. 45 

in the world, is so only, till he differs in 
opinion from the person who styles him so. 

cxxxn. 
" Love as if you should hereafter hate, 
and hate as if you should hereafter love," 
is honesty only to the sight, as a silverwash 
on copper, where the least wear shows the 
base metal. 

CXXXIII. 

By associating vice with a plausible dis- 
play of virtue, and by mixing up some 
truth with falsehood, worthlessness becomes 
palatable ; and when adapted to the pas- 
sions of society, the contagion spreads and 
becomes baneful to our best interests. 

cxxxiv. 
Natural character is often stifled in the 
endeavour to be what others wish us to be. 

cxxxv. 
Love is either rewarded with reciproca- 
tion, or with secret contempt. 

cxxxvi. 
Wit should be pointed and appropriate, 



46 MAXIMS. 

and not debased by low conceits. James I. 
used to say, when the lords of the council 
sat on any great matters of state, and came 
to make their report to him, " Well, you 
have sat ; but what have you hatched ?" 
Here the vulgarity is greater than the wit. 

cxxxvu. 
Happiness and security are the great 
ends of all good government. 

cxxxvni. 
Conceited people never listen to reason 
till reason can do them no good. 

CXXXIX. 

The greatest men when they are blind 
are exceedingly blind. The opinions of 
Hume and Voltaire, on the merit of Shak- 
speare, are extraordinary instances of this 
blindness ; Hume says of him. A striking 
peculiarity of sentiment, adapted to a sin- 
gle character, he frequently hits, as it were 
by inspiration ; but a reasonable propriety 
of thought he cannot for any time uphold. 
— On Shakspeare being translated into 






MAXIMS. 47 

French, Voltaire is outrageous, and calls 
the translator a blockhead, fit only for the 
pillory, and to wear a fool's cap ; and for 
whom there are not enough of fool's caps in 
all France, for translating an author only 
fit for Bartholomew Fair. 

CXL. 

Where the worst men surround any man, 
the best cannot serve him. 

CXLI. 

He who makes others act by compulsion 
rather than by persuasion, though it be for 
their own benefit, must be regardless of 
reflected kindness. 

CXLII. 

Increased fame and reputation produce 
either increased love or hatred. 

CXLIII. 

Envy and ignorance are always ready to 
forward misunderstanding, with a hope of 
gaining some reputation by the benefit of 
contrast. 



48 MAXIMS. 

CXLIV. 
To judge justly of men, the prejudices 
of their times must not be overlooked. 

CXLV. 

The sleep of friendship is its death. 

CXLVI. 

Friendships made by obligations are not 
lasting. 

CXLVII. 

Nothing is more common than for ano- 
ther man to become your enemy, because 
you will not be your own. 

CXLVIII. 

Ignorant men are more apt to find out 
reasons for what has never been explained 
than men of sense. 

CXLIX. 

Men are less forgiving towards those who 
oppose their follies than their vices, as they 
would at all times rather be considered 
knaves than fools. 






MAXIMS. 49 

CL. 
He who employs his time to amuse others 
is more beloved than esteemed. 

CLI. 

"When sorrow is at the flood, it is too 
great for complaints or tears. 

CLII. 

Difference of opinion on religious and 
political subjects has a tendency to narrow 
our habits of intercourse with those whom 
we sincerely esteem. 

CLIII. 

By the multitude, celebrity and great- 
ness are the same ; by philosophers they 
are analyzed, and often separated. 

CLIV. 

Natural rights so triumphantly advo- 
cated by ultra politicians, are very correctly 
stated by Paley to be " such as would 
belong to man, were there no civil govern- 
ment in the world." Therefore, when he 
enters into society, his natural rights are 

c 



50 MAXIMS. 

at an end ; and the laws that regulate the 
social compact, by which he enjoys civili- 
zation, it is at once his interest and his 
duty to uphold. 

CLV. 

The ignorant feel no veneration or res- 
pect for those objects which recal the 
remembrance of remarkable persons or 
memorable events. 

CLVI. 

Mutual civility polishes and refines our 
manners, but rarely advances our respect 
for plain and honest truth. 

CLVII. 

When knaves fail in their attempts to 
overreach others, it is by overvaluing their 
own sagacity. 

CLVI1I. 

Inconsistency and irrationality are not suf- 
ficient grounds for incredulity. A tradesman 
will often spend hundreds a-year in adver- 
tising his goods, and take no pains to be civil 
in his shop, when an obliging manner is the 



MAXIMS. 51 

best of all advertisements, and costs nothing. 
The late Lord Lonsdale, in his last illness, 
sent for bad wine from an inn at Penrith, 
when he had many thousand pounds' worth 
of good wine in his own cellar. Lord Lovat 
stopped his carriage to buy gooseberries 
in his way from the House of Lords to the 
Tower, after he was condemned to lose his 
head. 

CLIX. 

Nothing is more often calculated upon 
than uniformity of opinion, and there is 
nothing in which we are more commonly 
disappointed. Every man's character is 
made up of a bundle of habits and sensa- 
tions ; and reason is only called in when 
it serves his purpose, and rejected for some 
better reason when it opposes a favourite 
propensity. 

CLX. 

The receiver is always unjust to the 
giver when kindness falls short of the re- 
ceiver's expectation. 



52 MAXIMS. 

CLXI. 

The follies we tell of others are often 
only as a mirror to reflect our own. 

CLXII. 

A man may flatter himself, when his 
genius and good sense are commended, that 
he has an influence over those by whom 
he is praised ; but in that expectation he 
will be disappointed, for self-love always 
makes one exception. 

CLXIII. 

Bacon says, that extreme self-love will 
set a man's house on fire, though it be only 
to roast his eggs. 

CLXIV. 

Base natures, if they find themselves 
once suspected, will never be true. 

CLXV. 

He that defers his liberality till he is 
dead is rather liberal of what belongs to 
another than to himself. 



MAXIMS. 53 

CLXVI. 

Manners make the surface of society, 
and integrity the heart. 

CLXVTI. 

Whenever esteem is to be preserved by 
management, the cost is greater than its 
worth. 

CLXVIII. 

Noble disinterestedness is of all virtues 
the most popular. 

CLXIX. 

By studying trifles two of the best things 
in the world are neglected, knowledge, and 
your own understanding. 

CLXX. 

Men are more jealous of their little 
merits than of their great ones, because the 
former are more doubtful than the latter. 

CLXXI. 

What is natural is always original ; what 
is the result of calculation is very rarely so. 

CLXXII. 

Bargain-making, or the desire of having 



54 MAXIMS. 

the credit of buying cheap, is an invasion 
of the principle of honesty, and often pro- 
duces dishonesty itself. 

CLXXIII. 

It is the character of an ingenuous dis- 
position, where it owes much to be willing 
to owe more. 

CLXXIV. 

It is unwise to press any political mea- 
sure further than is consonant with the 
general sense of the community. This 
was a maxim of Plato's, and repeated with 
approbation by Cicero. 

CLXXV. 

Where virtue reigns the show of nice 
decorum is useless. 

CLXXVI. 

Force may vanquish, but mildness, jus- 
tice, and generosity can alone produce 
complete submission. 

CLXXVII. 

Religion invigorates all our virtues, and 
softens calamity. 



MAXIMS. 55 

CLXXVIIT. 

When the passions are awake, reason is 
asleep. 

CLXXIX. 

When a friend has reduced himself from 
intimacy to the degree of a common ac- 
quaintance, his final absence leaves no 
traces of regret. 

CLXXX. 

Society without confidence soon becomes 
tiresome. 

CLXXXL 

To inform the understanding and to enter- 
tain the imagination may amuse or awaken 
esteem ; but he who kindles the affections 
has found the true secret of friendship. 

clxxxit. 
Public mischief is often defended with 
success, by giving it a good name. 

CLXXXIII. 

Persevering parsimony is generally the 
effect of a narrow mind ; but the world is 
mistaken when a miser is supposed to be 
without enjoyment. Mr. Hill, of Kemp 



56 MAXIMS. 

Park, who had been a leather breeches- 
maker, and afterwards a trader in gunpow- 
der, concentred all his pleasure in the sole 
object of accumulation ; and, like Timon, 
banished kindness from his heart, not from 
any ingratitude he had received, but, as 
he used to say, from the fear of experi- 
encing it. He amassed a fortune of eight 
hundred thousand pounds, and bequeathed 
it principally to two persons, no way re- 
lated to him. 

Lee and Kennedy, nurserymen, at Ham- 
mersmith, rented of him a small tract of 
poor land near Hounslow Heath, on a 
lease, which they exceedingly improved 
before the expiration of the term. Mr. Lee 
then applied for a renewal of the lease, 
fully prepared for a considerable advance ; 
but, contrary to his expectation, Mr. Hill 
granted him a longer term than he had 
any reason to expect, and at the old rent ; 
on which Mr. Lee expressed himself very 
much obliged for the favour. " Favour ! 
I never granted a favour in my life, for 



MAXIMS 57 

I never would put it in the power of 
any man living to be ungrateful to me ; 
you have already enabled me to let all my 
poor land in this neighbourhood at a high 
rent, which I never could have done, had 
you not shown by your management what 
it was capable of producing ; and I grant 
you these terms that you may be encouraged 
to make still greater improvement, by 
which I shall be a greater gainer than by 
increasing your rent." 

CLXXXIV. 

Uncouth habits and supercilious man- 
ners are often more prejudicial to a man 
than bad principles ; the former being al- 
ways visible, and the latter, more deeply 
seated. 

CLXXXV. 

A rude man courts hostility. 

CLXXXVI. 

Good breeding the Stoics ranked among 
the number of the social virtues. 

c2 



58 MAXIMS. 

CLXXXVII. 

Natural disposition is best known when 
it is least watched. 

CLXXXVIII. 

Manner is so important in society, that 
the best men are undervalued for the want 
of it. Dr. Johnson was an illustrious exam- 
ple of one who sometimes diminished the 
force of his own colossal intellect by the 
want of courtesy. One who accommodates 
himself to every fancy of others when they 
are present, without caring one straw about 
them when out of sight, will be beloved ; 
while he who is sincerely ardent to serve 
them, without consulting their inclinations, 
will be always shunned, and often hated. 

CLXXXIX. 

It is a proper, as well as a benevolent 
rule to believe what we hear, when it is to 
the credit of a friend, and only believe 
what is proved, when it is to his disad- 
vantage. 



MAXIMS. 59 

cxc. 
The best men never please themselves ; 
the bad never please any but themselves. 

cxci. 
Resolute thoughts fmd words for them- 
selves ; he who feels deeply will express 

strongly. 

cxcn. 

Rational freedom, which promotes and 

secures our best interests, is the parent of 

virtue, and virtue is the only source of 

public and private happiness. 

CXCIII. 

He who acts honestly and disinterestedly 
will always have the satisfaction of respect- 
ing himself, whatever may be his estimation 
with others. 

cxciv. 

Ignorant minds, thoroughly dismayed, 
are pliant to superstition. 

cxcv. 
He who has no quality to win affection 
can never be popular, however honest or 
however virtuous. 



60 MAXIMS. 

CXCVI. 

By those who are not generous, gene- 
rosity is accounted a folly. 

cxcvu. 
The three things that govern mankind 
are reason, passion, and superstition; the 
first governs the few, the two last share 
the bulk of mankind. — Locke. 

CXCVIII. 

Half a truth told to deceive, has all the 
inequity of a falsehood, with the addition 
of dishonourable artifice and cunning. 

cxcix. 
Those who know little are obliged to be 
positive of every thing they are supposed to 
know, as they cannot afford to suffer any 
diminution of credit. 

cc. 
When cheerfulness is produced by effort 
the end is always defeated. 

cci. 
Respect and regard are influenced by 
reason and governed by it, but attachment 
often subsists when reason is subverted. 



MAXIMS. 61 

ecu. 
Liking and disliking do not depend on 
virtues or vices. Waller was liked without 
one single virtue ; Dr. Johnson liked Top- 
ham Beauclerk, who had no quality which 
he professed to value or esteem. And of 
Queen Elizabeth, the reigning favourite of 
her heart was the worst man in her domi- 
nions # . 

ccin. 

Right, as applied to things, is a moral 
power of action and possession, in confor- 
mity to law : hence no man has a right to 
do wrong, although he may have the power. 

cciv. 
" No book can be really good which 
cannot be read with pleasure a second time. 
All works of imagination require painting 
and music to be discreetly intermixed from 
time to time with a few short philosophical 

* Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who murdered 
his first wife and administered poison to his second ; 
in which art he is said to have been wonderfully 
skilled. 



62 MAXIMS. 

precepts. This is one reason why Horace, 
Virgil, and Ovid have always pleased." 

ccv. 

Advice given before it is asked is never 
thankfully received , as no one likes to have 
his ignorance anticipated. 

ccvi. 
The advantage of intellectual attainments 
is thus beautifully expressed by Cicero : 
" They give mental food to the young, and 
amusement to the old ; are an ornament 
in prosperity, and furnish consolation and 
a refuge in adversity." 

ccvn. 
Expostulations are apt to end well be- 
tween lovers, but ill between friends. 

ccvin. 

Sir Thomas Gresham said that he always 
bought dear, and sold cheap. The modern 
practice in trade is to buy cheap, and sell 
dear. 



MAXIMS. 63 

CCIX. 

When statements have the credit of being 
coloured with artifice, the truth when told 
becomes the best deception. 

ccx. 

Mutual confidence is the strongest bond 
of social life. . 

ccxi. 

It is extraordinary that praise should 
ever be solicited, since it is quite certain, 
when so obtained, it can be good for no- 
thing. 

ccxn. 

To rule by mere will is to rule by vio- 
lence, and violence is war. 

CCXIII. 

With a barbarous people, to surmount 
a difficulty is equivalent to genius. In 
Russia to move a granite rock of more than 
fourteen hundred tons a distance of eight 
miles, on which the equestrian statue of 
the Czar Peter is placed, is still looked up 



64 MAXIMS. 

to as a wonder ; though it was reduced to 
half its original size, after it was brought 
to St. Petersburg. 

ccxiv. 

Every diminution of sympathy is a pro- 
bable abatement of the durability of friend- 
ship. 

ccxv. 

Abstract theories on the institutions of 
society are apt to disappoint expectation ; 
hence all novelties in government should 
be entertained with doubt and suspicion. 
In the marriage contract, the impossibility 
of dissolving it, under any circumstances, 
implies injustice and absurdity, as in the 
Roman Catholic church ; yet, if the result 
be well considered, it might be found diffi- 
cult to make a regulation on the whole 
better adapted to social order. The same 
objection might be made to the law in 
England which requires the unanimous 
opinion of twelve men in a jury-box, who 
never are and never can be entirely unani- 



MAXIMS. 65 

mous on any doubtful matter; yet there 
is this important advantage from making 
unanimity essential to their verdict, the 
opinion of no one of the twelve can be 
slighted or neglected, and consequently the 
full force of their united judgment is ne- 
cessarily brought to bear upon the point 
in discussion ; and thus, if the majority of 
votes has not its due influence, the majority 
of thought and intellect is more certainly 
and accurately ascertained. 

ccxvi. 

The characters of men, when truly drawn, 
are instructive to mankind : of such are 
those of Louis XIV. and William III. 
" Louis XIV. had a sort of stiffness and 
perseverance, arising from arrogance or 
obstinacy, by his flatterers styled fortitude 
and firmness. In religion he was a bigot ; 
in politics false, suspicious, and timid ; in 
government insolent and oppressive ; the 
property of his mistresses, the pupil of his 
confessors, the dupe of his ministers ; a 



66 MAXIMS. 

sore plague to his neighbours ; a sorer to 
his own people ; vainly addicted to war, 
without the talents of a warrior; a dis- 
honourable enemy ; a faithless ally ; and 
with small abilities a great troubler of the 
world." 

William III. is thus sketched by Sir 
William Temple, who knew him well : 
" He was a man of the most decisive judg- 
ment, of the most consummate knowledge ; 
the sincerest man in the world, and hated 
all tricks and those that used them." 

ccxvu. 

Tediousness in writing does not depend 
on minuteness of detail, but on telling 
what illustrates nothing. The minute de- 
tails of Sterne exhibit true portraits. My 
Father, my Uncle Toby, and the Corporal 
are as if drawn and finished by Hogarth 
and Teniers. And the same may be said 
of the inimitable works of Fielding, Smol- 
let, and Goldsmith. 



MAXIMS. 67 



CCXV1II. 



Plutarch says, Tr)g aXr?Sivrjc aperrig Ka\- 
Xigtcl (paiverat ra fxaXicrra (j>aiv6/uiEva' which 

Lord Grenville translates, " Real virtue is 
most loved where it is most nearly seen;" 
and Langhorne, " Real and solid virtue, 
indeed, the more it is seen the more glo- 
rious it appears." 

ccxix. 

Pleasures are generally most valued 
which are most productive of engagement 
and activity in the pursuit. 

ccxx. 

Indiscriminate praise, however it may 
affect to be thought excess of candour, is 
commonly the effusion of a frivolous under- 
standing. 

ccxxi. 

Engagement and occupation are essential 
to happiness. 



68 MAXIMS. 

CCXXII. 
The quality we call Vice, in a moral sense, 
is that if generally practised would pro- 
duce misery ; and Virtue, that which pro- 
motes the general happiness. By this rule 
the knot may be untied which has so often 
perplexed moralists, by the Proteus cha- 
racter of these two qualities in different 
nations, and in different ages of the world. 

CCXXIII. 

Liberty, as it regards wild animals, is 
the power to follow their natural instincts ; 
as it regards man in a civilized state, it is 
the not being restrained by any law but 
what conduces in a greater degree to the 
public welfare. 

ccxxiv. 

Flippant nonsense is more popular than 
grave and silent dulness ; for although the 
former be more troublesome, yet we escape 
the suspicion that there lurks any latent 
pride by which we may by possibility be 
undervalued. 



MAXIMS, 69 

CCXXV. 

Obstinate people fancy every body wrong 
but themselves. A juryman once told me 
that he was always empannelled with eleven 
obstinate men. 

ccxxvi. 
Who talks from thought and reflection 
is rarely eloquent ; Madame de Stael was 
the only exception I ever knew to that 
rule. 

ccxxvu. 

Falsehoods enforced with daring assu- 
rance, succeed better with the world than 
truth feebly told and feebly supported. 

ccxxvm. 

An appetite to account for every thing 
is the origin of endless absurdities, even 
among men of sense. 

ccxxix. 

Singularity is pride in one of the count- 
less shapes it assumes. 



70 MAXIMS. 

ccxxx. 

Poverty is the mother of sedition and 
want is always dangerous to public tran- 
quillity. 

ccxxxi. 

Those who have an object depending 
which strongly engages their hopes and 
fears, are inclinable to superstition. Spenser 
says, " it is the manner of men, that when 
they are fallen into any absurdity, or their 
actions succeed not as they would, they are 
always ready to impute the blame thereof 
unto the heavens, so to excuse their own 
follies and imperfections/' Hence, by im- 
posing on themselves, they are easily 
wrought upon to believe the absurdities in 
which they are in no way concerned, and 
to confound the reasonableness of things 
with phantoms of the imagination. 

CCXXXII. 

A man's own good breeding is the best 
security against other people's ill manners. 



MAXIMS. 71 

CCXXXIIL 

The permanency of most friendships de- 
pends upon the continuity of good fortune. 

ccxxxiv. 
Ambition is a primary cause of unhap- 
piness in the world : Montesquieu says, 
" I visited the galleys and I did not see one 
unhappy face." 

ccxxxv. 
Enjoy the present hours so as not to in- 
jure those that follow.* 

ccxxxvi. 
Heroism that results from just morals 
interests few ; the heroism that is most 
destructive, is the admiration of the multi- 
tude ! 

ccxxxvu. 

Enmity is the more bitter where a sense 
of dignity obliges us to conceal the cause 
of our resentment. 

* Sic prsesentibus utaris voluptatibus, ut futuris 
non noceas. — Seneca. 



72 MAXIMS. 

CCXXXVIII. 

To oppose a favourite prejudice is to 
risk odium, if you succeed, and contempt, 
if you fail. 

ccxxxix. 

Friendship and affection are the most 
delightful qualities in human life ; though 
like other qualities they are subject to 
decay. 

CCXL. 

Hope is the link that unites all our plea- 
sures. 

ccxli. 

Men of talents govern fools ; yet some 
fool or other often governs a man of talent. 

CCXLII. 

In critical times it is a false calculation 
to suppose that men will suffer bad things 
because their ancestors have suffered worse ; 
and it is a rare quality to know the best time 
and manner of yielding what it is impos- 
sible to keep. 



MAXIMS. 73 

CCXLIII. 

Old friends are the best advisers, but 
seldom the most agreeable, because they 
are generally regardless of pleasing at the 
expense of truth. 

CCXLIV. 

Those whom guilt stains, it equals. 

CCXLV. 

Patriotism,* like pure gold, has, in every 
age, been estimated as of the highest value ; 
but pretenders have always made it a base 
currency in popular commotions. 

* A whimsical view of this quality was given to 
the Emperor Joseph II. by Zoffany, the painter, 
when he was once asked by him, in the Florence 
Gallery, what countryman he was; to which he 
replied, an Englishman. " An Englishman ! Zof- 
fany is not an English name." " No, I was born 
in Germany." " Then," said the Emperor, with 
some surprise, " how is it that you are an English- 
man ?" " Because England is the country where I 
have been able to live since I was born." The Em- 
peror felt the ingenuity of the remark, and gave him 
a commission to paint a large picture of himself and 
the imperial family. 

D 



74 MAXIMS. 

CCXLVI. 

He who encumbers another with obliga- 
tions which he expects to be repaid with 
interest, courts hostility from the very per- 
son on whom he confers his favours. 

CCXLVII. 

When the mind is engrossed by a preju- 
dice, it seldom reflects, though the person 
be not wanting in previous knowledge or 
sagacity 

Old Gerard, who was a scientific man 
and an observer of nature, believed in the 
existence of a goose produced from the 
spume or froth of the sea ; and concludes 
his extraordinary account by saying, " For 
the truth hereof, if any doubt, may it please 
them to repair to me, and I will satisfy 
them by the testimony of good witnesses." 
Josephus says, that several wild beasts 
brought to Rome, and turned into the Cir- 
cus where there were parcels of earth taken 
from their respective countries, each imme- 
diately ran to his native soil. The story 



MAXIMS. 75 

of Arion, and Pliny's dolphin, that daily 
carried a boy to school, across the bay of 
Baia, are instances of blind belief of the 
same kind. 

CCXLVIIL 

It is to live twice when you can enjoy 
the recollection of your former life. 

CCXLIX. 

It is the last of all infamies to prefer 
existence to honour, or for the sake of life, 
to lose every inducement to live. 

CCL. 

In successful military operations all men 
assume a part; but disasters are always 
attributed to one. 

CCLI. 

Speaking is acting, in philosophical 
strictness, and as to all moral purposes ; 
for, if the mischief and motive of our con- 
duct be the same, the means we use make 
no difference. 



76 MAXIMS. 

CCLII. 

In language, the ignorant have pre- 
scribed laws to the learned. 

CCLIII. 

History is philosophy teaching by exam- 
ples ; and if it does not make us morally 
or politically better; the study, Tillotson 
says, is only a plausible sort of idleness. 

CCLIV. 

To doubt the truth of those facts, re- 
specting the nature of which we are entirely 
ignorant, and concerning which we have 
no previous knowledge, is generally a con- 
trivance to make our ignorance wear the 
appearance of reasonable scepticism. 

CCLV. 

A true story embellished with fictitious 
circumstances takes from its real value : 
for a story should be a specimen of life and 
manners ; but if the surrounding circum- 
stances are false, it is no more a represen- 
tation of reality ; and, therefore, no longer 

Worthy of attention. Dr. Johnson. 






MAXIMS. 77 

CCLVI. 

He is deserving of praise who considers 
not what he may do, but what it is be- 
coming him to do. 

CCLVII. 

There can be no friendship without virtue, 
for that intimacy, which amongst good men 
is called friendship, becomes faction, when 
it subsists amongst the unprincipled. — Saiiusu 

CCLVIII. 

The powerful hold in deep remembrance 
an ill-timed pleasantry, 

CCLIX. 

When modesty is once extinguished it 
never returns. — Seneca. 

CCLX. 

Meddling with what does not belong to 
us is the fermenting leaven of social life. 
When any one acts with indiscretion, it is 
common to enlarge upon it with reference 
to our own superior prudence ; whereas 
the better part would be to conceal what 
we often, through want of knowledge, or 
by design, uncharitably aggravate. 



78 MAXIMS. 

CCLXI. 

Men are more prone to revenge an injury 
than to repay a benefit; because obliga- 
tions are burdensome and painful ; but 
taking vengeance seems to be something 
gained. 

CCLXII. 

Monarchy is the best government or the 
worst. A French author of celebrity, in 
the reign of our Henry VI., says that Eng- 
land is the place in the world where public 
justice is most equally administered, and 
where the people suffer the least violence ; 
and so it is at this day. 

CCLXIII. 

A promise given only to serve a purpose, 
and not kept, does more injury to him who 
gives it, than the serving that purpose does 

him good. 

CCLXI v. 
Craftiness is a despicable quality, and 
undoes itself. It can never deceive long ; 
and where it becomes apparent, it becomes 
impotent. 



MAXIMS. 79 

CCLXV. 

Ingenuity may be founded in deceptive 
nonsense ; but there can be no good taste 
which is not founded in truth. 

CCLXVI. 

One ungrateful man does an injury to 
all who are wretched. 

CCLXVII. 

The many more readily submit to here- 
ditary greatness than to greatness acquired 
by superior merit and talents ; because 
envy has a greater influence over our minds 
with regard to those who have been born 
our equals, than towards those who, in 
rank, have always been our superiors. 

CCLXVIII. 

In an argument, he who advances more 
reasons than are necessary is sure to lose 
the benefit of those that are directly to his 
purpose; for he who is weak in defence 
will seize the weak points of his adversary, 
and endeavour to make them principal to 



80 MAXIMS. 

smother and annihilate those positions which 
cannot be successfully opposed. 

CCLXIX. 

The science which teaches men their 
duty, and the reasons of it, is called moral 
philosophy, and was the basis of all the 
different systems of philosophy of the an- 
cient world. It was the high sense of this 
science that fortified Metellus against the 
entreaties of his friends, when they urged 
him to vote for a law he disapproved, yet 
dangerous to him to withhold his assent. 
On which occasion he said, "It is the 
characteristic of a man of virtue and honour 
to act rightly, whatever consequences may 
ensue." This maxim is so important to 
morals that it cannot be too often insisted 
upon, or too firmly fixed in the mind. 



ERRATA. 

Page 32, for Covalli read Cavalti. 

Dele Maxim CHI., it being repeated, by mistake. 



APHORISMS 

TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK. 



useful 



I. 

Wisdom alone is lasting. 

ii. 
Men are deceived by unreasonable hopes. 

m. 
A road is never long to learn what i$ 



IV. 

Friends are only known in adversity. 

v. 
Valour is the greatest shield to mortals. 

VI. 

When a kindness is received, remember 
it ; and conferring one, forget it. 

d2 



82 APHORISMS. 

VII. 

Injury makes a tyrant. 

VIII. 

The secrets of a friend, for the sake of 
revenge, should never be revealed. 

IX. 

Injury and sorrow should be borne with 
fortitude. 

x. 

Either say what is better than silence, 
or be silent. 

XI. 

Not only abstain from wrong, but even 
from the pursuit of what may create sus- 
picion. 

XII. 

Virtue alone should govern the affairs 
of men. 

XIII. 

He who is about to consult with any 
one concerning his affairs, should first know 
how he has managed his own. 



APHORISMS. 83 

XIV. 
When a rich man engages in disgraceful 
affairs, what would he not do were he poor ! 

xv. 
Pleasures are proper if they are honour- 
able ; but not, if they are sensual. 

XVI. 

Clouds obscure the sun, and passions 
the mind. 

XVII. 

Resolve deliberately ; but when resolved, 
act firmly. 

XVIII. 

Having been guilty of a disgraceful ac- 
tion, hope not to lie concealed ; for although 
you may be concealed from others, you will 
be conscious to yourself. 

XIX. 

Consider what you are about to say, 
that the tongue may not run before the 
understanding. 



84 APHORISMS. 

xx. 
Those citizens are most wise who dread 
infamy more than the laws. 

XXI. 

Wicked men who obtain authority never 
fail to produce public calamities. 

XXII. 

His death is to be envied who dies doing 
good to a friend. 

XXIII. 

A Lacedaemonian, being asked why Sparta 
was unfortified, said, Do not deceive your- 
self; it is fortified by the virtues of the 

inhabitants. 

xxiv. 

If orderly men see the wicked disgraced, 
they will adhere more readily to virtue. 

xxv. 
He who spares the wicked, injures the 
good. 

XXVI. 

Misfortunes bring men together. 



APHORISMS. 85 

XXVII. 

Immortal glory cannot be bought with 
money. 

XXVIII. 

No one who is arrogant escapes the 
punishment that is due to arrogance. 

XXIX. 

A wise man in himself carries about him 
his possessions. 

xxx. 

Labour is the parent of glory. 

XXXI. 

iEsop, once, having lit a lamp, went 
about with it, in the day-time, and being 
asked why he did so, said, that he sought 
a Man. 

XXXII. 

Wicked manners pervert nature. 

XXXIII. 

Simplicity of discourse characterises an 
innocent man. 



86 APHORISMS. 

XXXIV. 
Alexander, having heard that Darius was 
leading three hundred thousand men into 
the field, said, One butcher is not afraid of 
many sheep. 

xxxv. 
Bears and lions are the most savage 
beasts in the mountains ; but tax-collectors 
and informers, in the cities. 

xxxvi. 
Anacharsis the Scythian being asked, 
what was hostile to men, said, They, to 
themselves. 

XXXVII. 

It is equally dangerous to give a sword 
to a madman, and power to a wicked man. 

XXXVIII. 

Hidden wickedness is more mischievous 
than declared wickedness. 

xxxix. 
Virtue, although a man be dead, is not 
lost. 



APHORISMS. 87 

XL. 

Antisthenes, being praised by wicked 
men, said, I fear lest something badly has 
been done by me, that I please such. 

XLI. 

Be not elated to appear better than 
wicked men ; but grieve, being worse than 
good men. 

XLII. 

He who knows useful things, not he who 
knows many things, is wise. 

XLIII. 

Look into your own words and actions, 
that you may yourself commit the fewest 
mistakes. 

XLIV. 

It is the business of a skilful pilot to be 
provided against the changes of the winds ; 
but of a wise man against those of fortune. 

XLV. 

All men affirm that wisdom is the great- 
est good ; but there are few who strive to 
possess it. 



88 APHORISMS. 

XLVI. 

It behoves a good man to remember 
past, and to do present things ; but it also 
behoves him to make sure of the future. 

XL VII. 

Virtue is the greatest accomplishment 
among men. 

XLVIII. 

There is nothing more intolerable than 
the presumption of ignorance. 

XLIX. 

Socrates, seeing a young man rich and 
uninformed, said, Behold a gilded slave. 

L. 

Glory and riches, without understanding, 
are not safe possessions. 

LI. 

Thunders affright children, and threats, 
fools. 

LII. 

A coward bears arms against himself 



APHORISMS. 89 

Lin. 

Alexander, when certain persons asked 
him to behold the daughters and the wife 
of Darius, said, It was shameful that those 
who had conquered men should be con- 
quered by women. 

LIV. 

Leonidas, hearing that the sun was ob- 
scured by the weapons of the Persians, 
said, That is good news ; for then we shall 
fight in the shade. 

LV. 

Socrates, being asked, From what things 
it behoves us chiefly to abstain, said, From 
base and unjust pleasures. 

LVI. 

A Lacedaemonian woman, when her son 
was lamed in battle, said, O son, grieve 
not, for thou shalt remember thy own valour 
at every step. 

LVII. 

Bion the sophist said, That the love of 
money was the source of every evil. 



90 APHORISMS. 

LVIII. 

Timon the misanthropist said, That in- 
satiableness and vanity were the elements 
of evils. 

LIX. 

iEsop, being asked what advantage was 
derived from a falsehood to those who prac- 
tised lying, said, This, although they speak 
truth, not to be believed. 

LX. 

It is preferable to fall amongst ravens 
than amongst flatterers ; for although the 
former injure the body of the dead man, 
the latter hurt the soul of the living. 

LXI. 

Demosthenes, when a certain man was 
lampooning him, said, I do not descend 
into a contest, in which the conqueror loses 
more than the conquered. 

LXII. 

Little kindnesses in season are greatest 
to those who receive them in adversity. 



APHORISMS. 91 

LXIII. 

To conquer one's self is the first and best 
of all conquests ; but to be conquered by 
one's self is both most shameful and most 
disgraceful. 

LXIV. 

Anacreon, the lyric poet, upon receiving 
a talent of gold from Polycratus the tyrant, 
gave it back, saying, I hate a gift that 
compels me to have sleepless nights. 

LXV. 

Socrates thought that he knew nothing, 
except this one thing, that he knew no- 
thing, but others knew not that. 

LXVI. 

Simonides said, That he never repented 
of silence, but of prating, often. 

LXVII. 

Bion the sophist, seeing an envious man 
very dejected, said, either to him has hap- 
pened a great evil, or to another a great 
good. 




92 APHORISMS. 



LXVIII. 

jEsop, being reproached because he had 
a hard favoured countenance, said, Attend 
not to my face, but to my mind. 

LXIX. 

Antisthenes the Socratic, to a man saying 
that war destroyed many poor, said, No, 
but it will make many. 

LXX. 

Socrates, to a person inquiring how any 
one might be well esteemed among men, 
said, If he endeavours to be such as he is 
desirous to seem. 

LXXI. 

The Cretans commanded their children 
to learn the laws in a certain recitative ; 
and then ordered them to learn the hymns 
of the gods. 

LXXII. 

Solon, being asked why he had not 
enacted a punishment against those who 
beat their fathers, said, Because I did not 
think that there could be such persons. 



APHORISMS. 93 



LXXIII. 



Aristotle said, That the roots of discipline 
were bitter, but the fruits, sweet. 

LXXIV. 

Choose rather to die honourably than to 
live disgracefully. 

LXXV. 

He is not rich who possesses many things, 
but he who does not stand in need of many 
things. 

LXXVI. 

Honour has been a preceptor to all men. 

LXXVII. 

Nothing so conduces to benevolence as 
the good estimation of good actions. 

LXXVIII. 

Every wise and useful man hates a lie. 

LXXIX. 

Solon, being asked how states could best 
preserve their family compact, said, " By 
the citizens obeying the magistrates, and 
the magistrates the laws." 



94 APHORISMS. 

LXXX. 

That city is most strongly fortified which 
has good men, who live according to the 
law, and who punish the unjust. 

LXXXI. 

All men who have learnt to be ruled 
rightly will also know how to govern when 
they have authority entrusted to them. 

LXXXII. 

Glorious war is to be preferred to dis- 
graceful peace. 

LXXXIII. 

To bad men, gain is preferable to justice. 

LXXXIV. 

Iron for safety in war is better than gold ; 
but in life, reason is better than riches. 

LXXXV. 

Pythagoras said, that was the best of 
States which had good men. 

THE END. 
C. Whittingham 21, Tooks Court, Chancery Lane. 



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